Description: For about the last fifteen years of his life, Thomas A. Langford pondered how grace is central to Christian theology. This book records his reflections and provides numerous gems of mature Christian insight. From beginning to end, the book is christologically focused. Grace is not something that God gives us; rather, it is the way God gives us himself. Grace is a person--God present to human beings. Grace is not a gift but rather a giver. Grace is Jesus Christ. The central contribution of this work is its personalization of grace, its sharp focus on God present in Jesus Christ. Because its focus on grace gives the reader such a clear and thematically developed entry point, this work is a great introduction to theology and the life of the church, the kind that pastors and parishioners would certainly benefit from confronting. Endorsements: ""Who better to teach us grace than one who so genially embodied, personified, and incarnated grace? . . . Langford] taught Christian grace in the manner of the great classical philosophers whom he so admired by embodying in his life that which he professed in his books, in the classroom, and in the pulpit. How appropriate that this manuscript was lying upon his desk when he died. What grace that we have it now. Grace, pure grace."" --from the foreword by William H. Willimon ""Reflections on Grace looks at grace from every facet of systematic theology. Methodists and Wesleyans will want to read and ponder these pages carefully, but the work reaches out to all Christian communions--Catholic, Orthodox, and evangelical. This grace-filled book can help any faithful and thoughtful Christian think deeper about and live more boldly in the constant grace of the Triune God."" --Alan G. Padgett, Methodist minister and Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary ""Tommy Langford exemplified what Methodism at its best should be. We can celebrate the publication of these last thoughts, as they demonstrate that Tommy was unafraid to change. May we learn from his example."" --Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School About the Contributor(s): Thomas A. Langford (1929-2000) served the United Methodist Church and Duke University throughout his adult life. Langford was ordained a Methodist minister in 1952. He was the primary author of the United Methodist Church's ""Our Theological Task"" (1988) and a member of the World Methodist Council bilateral theological discussions with the Roman Catholic Church, the World Lutheran Federation, and the World Reformed Alliance. He was the author or editor of fourteen books including Intellect and Hope (on the thought of Michael Polanyi), In Search of Foundations (on English theology and culture), and the widely read Practical Divinity (theology in the Wesleyan tradition). This current book, Reflections on Grace, is the work that he had been writing during the last years of his life. Philip A. Rolnick is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He is the author of Analogical Possibilities: How Words Refer to God and Person, Grace, and God (2007) Jonathan R. Wilson is Pioneer McDonald Professor of Theology at Carey Theological College. He completed his PhD at Duke in 1989 under the supervision of Thomas Langford.

This companion to Practical Divinity, Volume 1: Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition enlivens and contextualizes the discussion of the Wesleyan theological tradition, from Wesley through the twentieth century, offering a group of landmark documents that allow readers to experience the very life-blood of the movement.

"Langford is to be commended for providing his readers with an insightful itinerary through the chronicle of significant figures and impulses which together constitute the matrix of the people called Methodists. The reader is challenged to grapple with the varied theological and cultural perspectives of voices that, though often divergent, still resonate with the pulse of a movement that has exerted a remarkably transforming influence upon the modern world." --J. Steven O'Malley, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky.

This volume is a revision of Langford's earlier work, Practical Divinity: Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition (Abingdon Press, 1983). The major features of this revision include a treatment of the Boston Personalist School and the emergence of process thought. The revision also strengthens the ending of the first edition.

Practical Divinity traces the growth of Wesleyan thought from Britain to North America and to other continents, and views it against the background of general historical and institutional developments. The volume also gives special emphasis to major theological voices that have been influential since Wesley's time. It traces the full sweep and strength of the movement, including churches and Holiness branches such as Nazarene, Wesleyan, and Free Methodist.

Practical Divinity is the primary choice for textbook use in courses on Wesleyan/Methodist history, theology, and doctrine.

This volume is intended to set in historical context the official United Methodist theological statements in the Disciplines of 1972 and 1988, and to foster reflection on and discussion of the 1988 statement.